August 2014 Summaries

During the summer of 2014, PubNub hosted a group of interns—Madison, Bhavana, Eric, and Larry—each of whom worked on innovative projects involving the PubNub Data Stream Network. Bhavana created tutorials for connecting Arduino and Raspberry Pi to PubNub, focusing on Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Eric explored iOS development, integrating iBeacon with PubNub and developing geolocation technologies, while Madison implemented MQTT integration for low-powered IoT devices and developed a real-time content feeder for HackerNews. Larry showcased his skills by building various PubNub-powered applications, including a synchronized video playback app and a self-destructing chat app. Each intern was given autonomy in managing their projects, resulting in tangible and customer-facing demos that highlighted their technical capabilities and the versatility of the PubNub platform.

This tutorial provides a proof-of-concept for global, multi-data center Redis replication using PubNub and NodeJS, targeting low throughput and high volume scenarios. It describes the challenges of Redis replication, including TCP windowing and kernel tuning, and outlines a two-phase replication process involving an initial RDB stream dump followed by real-time updates. The guide emphasizes that the current implementation is not production-ready, supports a limited subset of Redis write commands, and has not undergone scale testing. Users are encouraged to experiment with the code, which involves setting up a Redis replicator, listener, and proxy using PubNub channels, with the aim of fostering inspiration and discussion around further development and bug fixing.

This tutorial outlines how to use an iDevice as both an iBeacon emitter and observer using Swift for iOS and OS X, aimed at creating a system where shopkeepers can send daily deals to customers via an app. iBeacon, a Bluetooth protocol rather than a physical device, allows close-proximity information exchange, akin to a lighthouse guiding an observer. The tutorial details using PubNub to enhance iBeacon communication beyond basic data, enabling a device to act as the "brain" by subscribing to a channel to receive complex information and trigger events. The process involves setting up an ad server on the iBeacon-emitting device, broadcasting the beacon signal with defined major and minor numbers, and using CoreLocation and CoreBluetooth libraries for both emitter and observer devices. The observer, upon detecting the beacon, subscribes to the PubNub channel to receive ads or deals and can modify the communication model for various applications, such as location-based authentication. The tutorial also notes the release of a redesigned iOS SDK and provides guidance for migrating to the new version.

DropTask is a task management application designed to enhance productivity and efficiency for individuals and teams through a visually engaging user interface that facilitates task prioritization and delegation. Real-time collaboration was a fundamental requirement from the outset, leading the development team to integrate PubNub's Data Stream Network, which provides real-time state synchronization and cross-device compatibility, instead of building their own infrastructure. This integration allows for instantaneous updates on project status across teams, streamlining the development process and enabling DropTask to focus on application enhancements without the burden of maintaining real-time services. PubNub's ease of use and range of client libraries support the expansion of DropTask across more devices and operating systems, ultimately improving customer experiences and accelerating the product's market delivery.

WebGL, a JavaScript API, allows developers to harness the power of OpenGL to create interactive 3D graphics within web browsers without requiring users to download plugins. This capability is enhanced by integrating cloud services, enabling real-time 3D visualizations and applications through protocols like WebSockets, AJAX, or long-polling. PubNub Data Streams further extends these possibilities by facilitating real-time data streaming to WebGL applications, allowing for dynamic updates and visual representation of data, such as displaying 0.01% of real-time data on an interactive 3D globe. Additionally, WebGL supports the creation of interactive 3D games, exemplified by the multiplayer game StackHack, which is inspired by Minecraft and allows users to build 3D environments collaboratively while maintaining consistency across browsers through PubNub's data syncing capabilities. The text encourages exploring additional examples of WebGL's potential on platforms like Chrome Experiments and three.js and outlines steps to get started with PubNub's offerings.

In Part Six of Ian Jennings's series on creating a multiplayer game with JavaScript, the focus is on developing a matchmaking algorithm that allows users to challenge each other directly, enhancing interactivity beyond random or skill-based matchmaking. The blog post details the process of making users clickable for selection, establishing communication via a handshake, and differentiating message types to handle various interactions like chat messages and challenge requests. The algorithm involves using PubNub's publish feature to send challenge requests, which are filtered by type and target, allowing users to accept or deny challenges. This pattern of user synchronization is applicable in various contexts, such as video calls or ride-sharing apps. The article also suggests the potential for private channels to maintain challenge privacy, with further details to be explored in subsequent parts of the series.

In light of GoInstant's discontinuation, PubNub presents itself as a viable alternative by offering similar features and a seamless migration process for developers. PubNub provides a comprehensive set of migration tools, documentation, and a free month for GoInstant users transitioning to their platform. Key features from GoInstant, such as data storage, quick message streaming, security, and synchronization, are mirrored in PubNub's offerings. PubNub enables developers to initialize connections using publish and subscribe keys, manage data streams through channels, and implement fine-grained security with their Access Manager. While GoInstant uses rooms, PubNub utilizes channels to manage communications, offering tools like audit and here_now for channel management. The migration process involves transforming GoInstant code examples to PubNub's SDK, and PubNub also offers a Data Sync API, currently in private beta, to ensure real-time data synchronization across devices with secure encryption.

Part five of a series on building Babel, an open-source chat widget and API with PubNub, focuses on creating a self-destructing chatroom UI on top of a previously developed self-destructing messaging system. The post details how to implement explode.js for message destruction, set up an HTML structure for the chat UI, and add custom countdowns for messages using jQuery and JavaScript methods such as setInterval for countdowns and explode.js for a dynamic destruction effect. It emphasizes the need to sign up for a PubNub account to acquire unique keys and utilize the PubNub JavaScript SDK for initializing and managing the chatroom's functionalities. The series aims to enhance user experience by offering encrypted, self-destructing messaging with public key exchanges, providing a live demonstration and access to the source code on GitHub for further exploration and application.

In response to the shutdown of GoInstant's service on August 31, 2014, PubNub offers tools and guidance to facilitate a smooth migration to its Data Stream Network, ensuring uninterrupted real-time chat functionality. The tutorial provided by PubNub outlines the necessary steps for transitioning from GoInstant to PubNub, emphasizing the simplicity of using PubNub's APIs, which require only ten lines of code to build a chat application. PubNub supports over 50 SDKs and offers capabilities for various applications, such as live dashboards and machine-to-machine signaling, through its publish and subscribe keys, making it a versatile solution for developers. Additionally, the new Chat Resource Center launched by PubNub offers comprehensive resources, including overviews, tutorials, and design patterns for building and deploying mobile and web chat applications.

GoInstant, a platform designed to simplify the creation of real-time, collaborative apps, announced it would shut down on August 31, 2014, prompting users to migrate their data to PubNub. To aid this transition, PubNub offered tools and a step-by-step guide for exporting data from GoInstant and importing it into PubNub's globally replicated network. Users were encouraged to export their GoInstant data via a straightforward process involving the GoInstant Data Export tool, which downloads data in JSON format for subsequent import into PubNub using the GoInstant-to-PubNub Migration Tool. This process ensures the continued functionality of real-time applications as GoInstant customers transition to PubNub's services, which offer similar real-time infrastructure capabilities.